disclaimer: iiiiiiiiiiiiii own nothing.

Merrie: "And man House shoulda said screw it and went to bed au natural instead. Just think of what wicked fun Cameron would have with him in the morning!" WTF! um...yeah...LMAO
Asano: NO HORSEWHIP! TAKE A CHAPTER!
Val'istar En'Alu: heh. that same thing happened with my cousin one time. he showed up and was like ''i'm crashing here'' and we were like ''ooooooook''

ON WITH THE STORY!

Cuddy stuck her head out of her office and looked up and down the hall, desperately seeking if the coast was clear. When she couldn't see him anywhere, she sighed in relief and started towards clinic.

"Cuddy!" called out a male voice.

She paused in her steps, cringing, and fisted her hands at the sky. Turning around to face him, she said, "Yes, Dr. Wilson?"

"Guess what I found out," he said joyfully. His eyes twinkled with a secret that he was longing to tell.

"Oh, for the love of God, James," she said, losing her patience with his excitement. "We know House eavesdropped on your phonecall with Dr. Cameron and got jealous. Stop saying it!" She threw up her hands and began to walk away. His next words made her stop and turn around.

"Oh, but this has nothing to do with that," he said, practically giddy. "Guess what House got yesterday?" Cuddy raised an eyebrow in interest, and he continued. "I bet you fifty bucks I know where House went for vacation and more importantly, why."

Cuddy, knowing that House liked his private life...private and most likely hadn't even told his best friend where he was going, crossed her arms and said, "I'm listening."

Cameron was aware of a few things when she woke up. One, she was nestled rather comfortably against a warm body. Male, most likely, unless women got five o'clock shadow. Second, a large hand was under her shirt and pressed flat against the middle of her back, while the other was running up and down her side.

Third...Gregory House was in her bed, holding her in an intimate way and was wide awake, watching her. "Ah," he said, his voice still gruff from sleep. "Sleeping Beauty is awake."

When she continued to stare at him, he removed the hand gliding up and down her ribcage and snapped his fingers in her face. "Hey there," he said. "Are you alive?"

She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. He frowned, removing his hand from her face and returning it to her side. "I'll take that as a yes..."

After a few minutes of an intense staring contest, Cameron said, "House..."

"It speaks," he commented dryly. "Had me worried for a few minutes there."

"House..." she said again. "What the hell are you doing in my bed?"

"You see," he said, pointing a finger in her face. "When you say it like that, it sounds like you don't want me here." He cocked his head at her. "Which would be completely hurtful."

"No, I do want...I mean I don't...but..." She shook her head. "What the hell happened?"

He frowned in mock-hurt. "You mean...you don't remember? You and I got completely wasted, went upstairs, and screwed ourselves silly." He rolled his eyes at her wide ones. "I woke up, took some Vicodin, and you were crying. Being the nice-" She snorted and he narrowed his eyes. "-nice guy that I am, I came to see the problem, and you practically tackled me in your sleep." He shrugged, as if in a note of finality. "There was nothing I could do about it."

"Except, you know," she yawned. "Wake me up."

He pursed his lips as though the thought hadn't occurred to him. "Right..."

She rolled her eyes and attempted to get up, but found that his hands were making that difficult. She raised an eyebrow at him. "You can let go, now."

He did so, though she could have sworn that he did it slowly, as if he didn't want to let go.

And, to be honest, she hadn't really wanted him to.

Upon discovering that it was too late to go to work, Cameron called in sick, then realized (or rather, decided) she had to give House a tour.

After dragging him through the movie theater that was nearby, then the mall, then around a small street that had somewhat of a Farmer's Market going on in it, House was complaining of a cramp in his cane hand and Cameron was hungry.

They stopped at Bill Bateman's Bistro, and somehow (though he hadn't said anything) the servers were already sufficiently terrified of House, and they were seated almost immediately.

"So..." Cameron said, a proud grin on her face and her hands toying with her napkin. "How do you like it?"

"Well," House said, eyes scanning the menu. "The steak sounds good. But so does the turkey club..." He looked up at her and saw her raised eyebrows. "Oh, you meant how do I like the city? It was fine, except for the part where you took me to the MALL."

"Oh, c'mon," she teased. "I know you liked standing around while I looked at stuff."

'Didn't care about that,' House thought to himself. 'I didn't like all those...frat boy neanderthals staring at your ass. That ass is mine and mine alone to blatantly stare at.'

"Yeah, well," he replied. "Don't expect me to comfort you when you cry tonight."

The jovial mood disappeared almost instantly, and Cameron looked depressed.

"Cameron," he said, in a voice too soft to be his own. She looked away. "Don't do that. I just want to know why you were..."

She turned to look at him. "It's just..." She wiped at her teary brown-green eyes. "I miss New Jersey, y'know? Baltimore is fine, don't get me wrong...but I miss the gang." She turned her face away from him again.

He regarded her profile for a few minutes, before saying the three most crucial words that anyone in his position would say:

"Please come back."

She glanced at him, slightly startled. "I...I can't."

"You have to," he said matter-of-factly. "I need you there. You balance me out. And no one likes an unbalanced Greg."

"You're a liar."

Foreman looked up from his comic and at Chase, who was throwing a ball in the air and catching it. Offended, he said, "Am not."

The Aussie snorted. "Please. House isn't into Cameron. There's no reason he would possibly visit her."

Foreman looked back down. "Whatever you say, Cleopatra."

There were a few minutes of silence before Chase said, "Oh...Cleopatra, Queen of Denial. I get it."

Foreman sighed in disgust. "How in the hell did you get to be a doctor?"

She had refused to speak to him the entire journey back to her house. It had become to much for him when they walked through her door and she announced in a quiet murmer that she was going to her room to rest for a while.

He grabbed her upper arm as she tried to make her way for the stairs. "Wait," he said, pulling her back to him. "Why won't you come back?"

She sighed and shook her head, meeting his eyes for the first time since Bill Bateman's. "I have a new job. I can't...leave it."

"You can have whatever you want," he interjected quickly. "Whatever it takes to get you to come back. Cuddy's practically smothering me with morons, and we need you back."

She paused, searching his face as she considered his offer. Then, slowly, she began to nod. "Okay," she said. "I'll come back."

He let out the breath he hadn't known he'd been holding, and then she went and said, "But I do have one requirement."

He raised his eyebrows at her, wondering why he got the feeling he wasn't going to like this.

TBC...